The Gift I Would Give All Pastors And Church Leaders

Leaders who are artists view what they provide as a gift.  They are not simply delivering a commodity.  They give away their unique insights, deliverables, and what Seth Godin calls “emotional labor”.  For these leaders, the gift and the advancement of the cause is more important than a simple financial exchange.

I’m in a position that I get a pretty good view of Christianity in America.  I’m seeing something that disturbs me and I hope that I’m very, very wrong.  If I could give American pastors and church leaders just one gift, one gift, it would be – URGENCY.

I’m currently sensing a tremendous lack of urgency in American churches.  It’s like we’re all in a malaise.  I know in certain individual churches this is not the case, but I’m speaking about the large percentage of the 375,000+ evangelical churches across the country.

What are we burning with excitement and passion about right now?  In the last twenty years, I’ve seen seasons of great passion for seekers, leadership, evangelism, stewardship, serving the poor and under-resourced, church planting, people becoming debt free, creativity, and multi-siting.  I feel we have now institutionalized many of these.

Currently, I don’t know what the American church is white-hot about?!

 These may be some of the causes for a lack of urgency:

• Comfort – Life is difficult and we desire comfort, especially in our churches.  Check out this post on the subject.
• Hell – Other than being completely inaccurate and downright heretical, the teaching of a hell-less eternity creates this.  Without a hell, where is the urgency to do anything?  To read my post on this subject, click here.
• The Holidays - Most ministries must dedicate approximately two months to deliver a tremendous amount of Christmas and Thanksgiving programming.  Most other things must go on hold.
• The Election – I fear many churches are putting expansion plans on hold to “wait and see what happens with the election.”  This is going to be a long period of inactivity if that is your mindset.
• Fear - Some church leaders have become risk-adverse because of fear of job loss.  
• Control - Some in lay leadership do not want accountability for their staffs.  They want control.  I have seen too many lay leaders stop ministry advancement because they are unwilling to pay the price of leadership responsibility. 
• Biblical Illiteracy – When I gave the list above of things I’ve seen the church deeply passionate about, did you notice I did not list the Word of God.  I have never seen a broad-based, comprehensive passion for Bible study.  Could we have become lulled to sleep?
• Too Much Information -We are inundated with information.  Church leaders do not need more information.  We need inspiration and revelation.

Pastors and church leaders, I hold this with an open hand.  Maybe it’s me that’s lost a sense of urgency and therefore, I can’t see it in others.  There are a handful of posts I hope I’m wrong about and this is one of them.

Help me out.  On a scale of 1-10, tell me what the American church is an 8 or higher on in the urgency and passion level.  Please tell me I’m wrong!!!

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